An asteroid is a minor planet—an object that is neither a true planet nor a comet—that orbits within the inner Solar System. They are rocky, metallic, or icy bodies with no atmosphere. The size and shape of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from small rubble piles under a kilometer across to Ceres, a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter.
Armageddon is a 1998 American science fiction disaster film produced and directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film follows a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to stop a gigantic asteroid on a collision course with Earth. It stars an ensemble cast consisting of Bruce Willis with Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Keith David and Peter Stormare.
An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or meteoroids and have minimal effect. When large objects impact terrestrial planets such as the Earth, there can be significant physical and biospheric consequences, as the impacting body is usually traveling at several kilometres a second, though atmospheres mitigate many surface impacts through atmospheric entry. Impact craters and structures are dominant landforms on many of the Solar System's solid objects and present the strongest empirical evidence for their frequency and scale.
Asteroid impact avoidance comprises the methods by which near-Earth objects (NEO) on a potential collision course with Earth could be diverted away, preventing destructive impact events. An impact by a sufficiently large asteroid or other NEOs would cause, depending on its impact location, massive tsunamis or multiple firestorms, and an impact winter caused by the sunlight-blocking effect of large quantities of pulverized rock dust and other debris placed into the stratosphere. A collision 66 million years ago between the Earth and an object approximately 10 kilometres wide is thought to have produced the Chicxulub crater and triggered the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that is understood by the scientific community to have caused the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs.
The B612 Foundation is a private nonprofit foundation headquartered in Mill Valley, California, United States, dedicated to planetary science and planetary defense against asteroids and other near-Earth object (NEO) impacts. It is led mainly by scientists, former astronauts and engineers from the Institute for Advanced Study, Southwest Research Institute, Stanford University, NASA and the space industry.
Meteor is a 1979 American science fiction disaster film directed by Ronald Neame and starring Sean Connery and Natalie Wood. The film's premise, which follows a group of scientists struggling with Cold War politics after an asteroid is detected to be on a collision course with Earth, was inspired by a 1967 MIT report, Project Icarus. The screenplay was written by Oscar winner Edmund H. North and Stanley Mann.
Asteroid is a 1997 NBC TV miniseries about the United States government trying to prevent an asteroid from colliding with the Earth. The miniseries aired February 16–17, 1997.
The Nibiru cataclysm is a supposed disastrous encounter between Earth and a large planetary object that certain groups believed would take place in the early 21st century. Believers in this doomsday event usually refer to this object as Nibiru or Planet X. The idea was first put forward in 1995 by Nancy Lieder, founder of the website ZetaTalk. Lieder claims she is a contactee with the ability to receive messages from extraterrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system through an implant in her brain. She states that she was chosen to warn mankind that the object would sweep through the inner Solar System in May 2003 causing Earth to undergo a physical pole shift that would destroy most of humanity.
The Green Slime is a 1968 tokusatsu science fiction film directed by Kinji Fukasaku and produced by Walter Manley and Ivan Reiner. It was written by William Finger, Tom Rowe and Charles Sinclair from a story by Reiner. The film was shot in Japan with a Japanese director and film crew, but with the non-Japanese starring cast of Robert Horton, Richard Jaeckel and Luciana Paluzzi.
"Doomsday" is the thirteenth and final episode in the second series of the revival of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 8 July 2006 and is the conclusion of a two-part story; the first part, "Army of Ghosts", was broadcast on 1 July 2006. The two-part story features the Daleks, presumed extinct after the events of the 2005 series' finale, and the Cybermen, who appeared in a parallel universe in the 2006 episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel". Both species unexpectedly arrive on Earth at the conclusion of "Army of Ghosts".
Crack in the World is a 1965 American science-fiction doomsday disaster movie filmed in Spain. It is about scientists who launch a nuclear missile into the Earth's crust, to release the geothermal energy of the magma below; but accidentally unleash a cataclysmic destruction that threatens to sever the earth in two. It was released by Paramount Pictures on February 24, 1965.
Battle Beyond the Sun is a 1962 science fiction film. It is an English-dubbed and re-edited American version of Nebo Zovyot, a 1959 Soviet science fiction film. Roger Corman acquired the Soviet film for US distribution and hired a young film-school student named Francis Ford Coppola to "Americanize" it.
End Day is a 2005 docu-drama produced by the BBC. It aired on the National Geographic Channel, on the TV series, National Geographic Channel Presents, and BBC Three that depicts a set of five doomsday scenarios. The documentary follows the fictional scientist Dr. Howell, played by Glenn Conroy, as he travels from his London hotel room to his laboratory in New York City, and shows how each scenario affects his journey as well as those around him, with various experts providing commentary on that specific disaster as it unfolds. After each 'End Day' runs its course, the day repeats, this time with the next scenario panning out.
Tycus is a 1998 American science fiction drama film directed by John Putch and starring Dennis Hopper, Peter Onorati, Finola Hughes, Chick Vennera and Amy Steel. It was released direct-to-video in 1999, in the United Kingdom, France, United States and other western countries.
Within the Rock is a 1996 American made-for-TV science fiction horror film directed by Gary J. Tunnicliffe. It starred Xander Berkeley, Brian Krause, and Duane Whitaker. It featured a cameo from former U.S. Marine Corps captain and technical advisor Dale Dye.
Meteor is a 2009 American disaster television miniseries directed by Ernie Barbarash, written by Alex Greenfield and distributed by RHI Entertainment, in association with Alpine Medien Productions, Larry Levinson Productions and Grand Army Entertainment. Shot in the United States, the series stars Marla Sokoloff, Michael Rooker, Billy Campbell, Stacy Keach, Christopher Lloyd, Kenneth Mitchell, Ernie Hudson, Mimi Michaels and Jason Alexander. The story is about the asteroid 114 Kassandra, which is on a collision course with the Earth. Its surrounding meteorites crash into various locations worldwide, including the small town of Taft, California, while the military is having little success eliminating it.
Collision Earth is a Canadian disaster television film directed by Paul Ziller. It was released in 2011 for broadcast on the Syfy Channel and later distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment on Blu-ray.
Ice Age: Collision Course is a 2016 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and by 20th Century Fox. It is the sequel to the 2012 film Ice Age: Continental Drift and the fifth installment in the Ice Age film series. The film was directed by Michael Thurmeier and co-directed by Galen T. Chu, from a screenplay written by Michael Wilson, Michael Berg, and Yoni Brenner, based on a story conceived by Aubrey Solomon. Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Keke Palmer, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Jennifer Lopez and Queen Latifah reprise their roles from previous films, with Adam DeVine, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Max Greenfield, Jessie J and Nick Offerman voicing new characters. In the film, after Scrat is propelled into outer space in an abandoned spaceship during an attempt to bury his acorn and accidentally sends a giant asteroid towards Earth, Manny, the Herd and Buck must go on a life-or-death mission to find a way to fend it off.
Hyper-velocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response (HAMMER) is a concept study by NASA on a spacecraft capable of detonating a nuclear bomb to deflect an asteroid, if it was on a collision course to Earth. The study is a collaboration between the National Nuclear Security Administration, NASA, and two Energy Department weapons labs.
Moon Man is a 2022 Chinese science fiction comedy film co-written and directed by Zhang Chiyu, and starring Shen Teng and Ma Li. The film is an adaptation of South Korean illustrator Cho Seok's webcomic series Moon You. It tells the story of "the last human in the universe" as a taikonaut finds himself stranded on the Moon after an asteroid seems to wipe out life on Earth.
